Teachers’ Writing Matters

As we leave the school year behind, many teachers will finally have long-awaited time to relax and sit outside with a good book. Others will return to the classroom as students themselves. Our hope is that teachers will use the summer months to begin (or finish!) writing projects of their own.

Meg Petersen discusses why teachers should write, particularly about themselves and their experiences, and share that work with their students. In this way, they may work more confidently with student writing.

“There is a deeper reason, however, for teachers of all subjects and levels to write about their lives and share these stories with each other. Writing and sharing narratives of our own experience helps us understand how our lives in and outside of the classroom are shaped by our identities and cultures. We can come to see our way of understanding the world as only one of many possible ways, allowing us to become aware of how our students’ lives may differ from our own. Parents would want their children’s teachers to have this kind of awareness, and writing can develop it.”